Crenshaw Reigns Amid Rain

14 Fail To Finish 3rd Round As Storm Soaks Masters

April 9, 1989|By George White of The Sentinel Staff

AUGUSTA, GA. — So the master of golf history gives history a chance to repeat itself.

It was in 1984 that Ben Crenshaw won The Masters, shooting a final-round 68 to blow past fellow Texan Tom Kite. Augusta National had been saturated by rains Saturday afternoon, forcing Crenshaw to finish his third round this morning.

In the eeriest of coincidences, Crenshaw begins play at 9 a.m. today on the No. 14 fairway. He and 14 other golfers failed to complete the third round, a combination of nasty elements combining to make golf Saturday afternoon a miserable proposition.

But there is one big difference between 1984 and 1989. When Crenshaw, whose obsession is reading golf history books, hit his first shot on Sunday in 1984, he was three shots off the lead.

When he begins play today, his 4-under-par score will be the only under-par mark on the scoreboard. Behind him at par are Nick Faldo, Mike Reid and Scott Hoch of Orlando.

Five shots behind is the clubhouse leader, Greg Norman, who got in a 68 before the real nasty weather began. Swept away was Lee Trevino, who led after the first round and was tied for the lead going into the second round.

Trevino bogeyed seven of the 12 holes he played, and not surprisingly was not available for comment afterward. The situation was so bleak that a van sent to pick up Trevino and playing partner Faldo from the 13th hole ran out of gas before it could get to the clubhouse.

''It's totally unrepeatable what he said,'' reported Faldo, who was tied with Trevino for the lead when the day began. ''He said he was hitting the ball all right, he just wasn't putting very well.''

Faldo, meanwhile, was having substantial difficulty himself. He fell out of the lead immediately with a double bogey on the first hole, then compounded his problems with three-putts at Nos. 9 and 11 and another bogey at No. 7.

Only Crenshaw persevered among the late starters, an unfortunate group that had to sit through a 1-hour, 40-minute delay, and then came out to the course to be confronted by all kinds of difficult elements.

Crenshaw, though, never buckled. He got an early birdie at No. 2 with a 12-foot putt and took the lead at No. 4 with an overland, curving 40-footer. He added a third birdie with an 18-foot putt at No. 7, then hung on after the lengthy rain delay.

More important than his birdie statistics, though, was the fact that he did not have any bogeys.

''It's a nightmare to play these holes in this kind of weather,'' Crenshaw said. ''But I played well in spots. I just kept on playing. After the rain delay, I was just struggling to maintain some kind of feel.''

Even though he comes to the course this morning with a four-shot advantage, he still has 23 holes to play. He certainly doesn't feel his lead is comfortable.

''You can drop shots so quickly at this place and not be far off your game at all,'' Crenshaw said. ''You'd like to play this golf course close to the vest, but you can't. It won't let you. You've got to go ahead and play.

''And, four shots is nothing, considering how many holes are left to play. I'm going to go out and try my hardest to build the lead even bigger, because I know what can happen around here.''

Norman, meanwhile, couldn't help feeling a little smug about his hot early round. ''Anything within six or seven shots going into the last day, you've got a chance to win,'' he said.

Mark O'Meara was one of the unfortunate players who had an afternoon tee time and got caught in the stop-again, go-again golf. His thoughts, he said, were on Norman watching on television while the late starters fought the rain and increasing winds.